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A-F school letter grade systems, currently used in 13 states across the United States (U.S.), are one popular version of the systems required by federal policy to help states define, rate, and label school quality every year. In this study, we explored the extent to which such grades assigned to schools, as based on objective measures including students' achievement test scores, may reflect school demographics and other, non-achievement-based school indicators. We found that letter grades do indeed reflect school demographics in a non-random way, thwarting the validity of the inferences to be drawn from states' A-F grade system output, which is critically more important when consequential decisions (e.g., school funding decisions, of pertinence in the state of focus in this study -- Arizona) are attached to A-F grade output. More specifically, we found that school demographic composition (e.g., race, free-and-reduced lunch [FRL] eligibility, and English language learner [ELL] status) are strongly associated with school letter grades and the combination of these factors correctly predicts the letter grades received by schools with a 75% accuracy.

With the aim of investigating the relationship between the funding of public basic education and the educational results achieved, this study analyzed a pre-selected set of foreign academic works and identified elements that can be used to encourage debate about the Brazilian model of educational financing. The study used the scoping review technique expanded by elements of the systematic literature of review to analyze the selected foreign studies. The study demonstrated that the availability of financial resources capable of providing an adequate set of inputs, accompanied by an efficient, responsible management process and subject to social control methods, is a crucial requirement for improving educational results and reducing the negative effects generated by low socioeconomic status (SES). It was also observed that although socioeconomic status is an important predictor of educational results, it can be mediated by actions carried out inside and outside school. Additionally, this study demonstrates that educational results need to be measured using indicators other than those obtained through standardized tests, such as: access; school performance; frequency; school dropout; student involvement; completion; progress between stages; improvement in social indicators/social mobility; compliance with the rights provided for in legislation, among others.

Purpose: Given the research gaps identified in a literature review, this study aims to uncover how the intensity of learners' motivational behavior and its predictors vary with grade level. Methodology: A large-scale survey was conducted to examine motivational behavior and its predictors among EFL learners across three education levels and ten grades in Taiwan: primary school (Grades 3 to 6), junior high school (Grades 7 to 9), and senior high school (Grades 10 to 12). A total of 12,441 valid cases were collected from both rural and urban areas in Taiwan. ANOVA and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings: The results showed a significant effect of grade level on the intensity of motivational behavior. Specifically, learners' intensity of motivational behavior tended to decline with grade level (years of study). The significant predictors of motivational behavior also differed with grade level. Significance: In addition to theoretical and methodological contributions to L2 motivation research, this study can enhance understanding of factors that could enhance learners' motivational behavior and offer implications to assist EFL teachers in developing motivational teaching strategies.

This article aims to contribute to the debate on the role of the Quota Law regarding the potential social mobility of students with high socioeconomic adversity, using administrative data from a federal university in Brazil. We used Confirmatory Factor Analysis technique to construct an adversity index, composed of variables that may negatively affect access to higher education, such as students' socioeconomic background, parental education, and ethnicity. We classified courses by expected earnings and assessed how background is associated with course choice. Then, we used regression models estimated by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to identify the relative importance of the interaction between quota categories with the adversity index and the score on the admission exam (National High School Examination -- "Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio" -- ENEM) to predict course choice and consequent possibility of social mobility. The results showed that quotas can reduce the negative effects of socioeconomic adversity on social mobility. However, they are not completely sufficient to "break" the effects of the low quality of secondary education in relation to ENEM performance and, consequently, social mobility

In this article we report on an exploration of leadership and context for the improvement of quality education in South African socioeconomic-deprived school contexts viewed through Hellinger's contextual theory, open systems theory, Bronfenbrenner's ecology of human development, and Bourdieu's theory of field, habitus and power. A post positivistic approach allowed for a quantitative research design which employed an interpretivist lens to use the theory and the context to interpret the numbers. A self-designed questionnaire was used for the data collection. We analysed the data by means of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) analysis program and evaluated using a Likert scale. In the study reported on here, the mean scores -- sorted from the highest, which means the most important factor, to the lowest -- are presented. The findings reveal that low teacher professionalism and non-compliance to the regulations, contextual factors outside the schools (teenage pregnancy, vandalism), learners' circumstantial challenges, high accountability by the department without considering schools' contextual factors, and a lack of parental involvement in the teaching-learning process were among the biggest challenges for principals to influence quality education.

Information technology (IT) is transforming the world. Therefore, exposing students to computing at an early age is important. And, although computing is being introduced into schools, students from a low socio-economic status background still do not have such an opportunity. Furthermore, existing computing programs may need to be adjusted in accordance to the specific characteristics of these students in order to help them to achieve the learning goals. Aiming at bringing computing education to all middle and high-school students, we performed a systematic literature review, in order to analyze the content, pedagogy, technology, as well as the main findings of instructional units that teach computing in this context. First results show that these students are able to learn computing, including concepts ranging from algorithms and programming languages to artificial intelligence. Difficulties are mainly linked to the lack of infrastructure and the lack of pre-existing knowledge in using IT as well as creating computing artifacts. Solutions include centralized teaching in assistive centers as well as a stronger emphasis on unplugged strategies. However, there seems to be a lack of more research on teaching computing to students from a low socio-economic status background, unlocking their potential as well to foster their participation in an increasing IT market.

Using student self-reports on a survey and objective records of academic achievement, I examined the effects of course modality on student satisfaction and academic outcomes at a selective liberal arts college in spring 2021. I compared three groups of undergraduates (N = 729) based on their predominant course modality: Online-Class Group, Residential Blended Learning Group, and Residential In-Person-Class Group. After controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, class level, and socioeconomic status, course modality demonstrated significant main effects on all three satisfaction variables and sense of connection a student felt to the institution. The Online-Class Group reported the lowest satisfaction with level of academic challenge, quality of teaching, and overall quality of academic experiences; it also reported the weakest sense of connection. The Residential Blended Learning Group differed from the Residential In-Person-Class Group on one variable: satisfaction with quality of teaching, on which the former reported lower satisfaction. Course modality did not affect a student's grade point average; although it interacted with gender in its effect on the number of course units a student passed, no subgroup difference by course modality and gender was significant. This study indicates that online classes and blended learning, especially the latter, have potential at liberal arts colleges. [Note: Last page of the PDF is blank, as provided by the publisher.]

This study examines how inequality manifested during the emergency remote COVID-19 transition in higher education. We use 35 in-depth interviews with college students, conducted virtually, in real-time, during spring 2020 lockdowns, to examine how the transition impacted their lives. Students in the sample from lower-income backgrounds reported significant basic needs insecurity, financial instability, and academic struggles. Latino and Black students in the sample, in particular, reported financial instability, mental health crises, and academic struggles. Meanwhile, affluent white students and affluent Asian students in the study tended to face only minor setbacks or even flourish during this time. University and government policies exacerbated the negative experiences of marginalized students, often due to faulty assumptions that all college students have families who provide for their needs. While the particulars of this crisis were unusual, and this study took place at one institution of higher education, these findings suggest that higher education administrators must consider the implications of policies on the most disadvantaged students.

Recently, numerous training programs have been proposed to enhance children's creative abilities. This study aimed to examine the impact of a SCAMPER-based training program on developing creative thinking among kindergartners in Jordan. The intervention is expected to provide evidence that could serve as a foundation for fostering creative thinking in young children and helping them express their creative abilities. SCAMPER encompasses seven thinking skills: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to Another Use, Eliminate, and Reverse/Rearrange. The program consisted of 20 interactive games where participants were encouraged to think in novel ways through playful questioning, fostering diverse thinking skills. This quasi-experimental study utilized the Jordanian version of the German Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production, with its psychometric properties verified for kindergartners. Data were gathered from one kindergarten, with a sample of 62 children randomly assigned to two groups: an experimental group of 30 children and a control group of 32 children. Means and standard deviations were calculated for the pre- and post-test results, and an analysis of covariance was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of the intervention at the 5% significance level. The findings revealed a statistically significant effect of the intervention on creative thinking development among the experimental group. Based on these findings, interventions aimed at enhancing creativity in early childhood are recommended.

The rapid expansion of distance learning in contemporary education has brought both promise and challenges, particularly for disadvantaged student populations. This article critically examines the various obstacles that hinder equitable access and participation in distance learning for marginalized groups. The discussion encompasses socioeconomic constraints, digital literacy limitations, language, and cultural barriers, lack of learning support, and diminished motivation and engagement. Each challenge is explored in depth, analyzing its impact on learners from low-income backgrounds, linguistic minorities, and diverse cultural contexts. Drawing on insights from existing literature, the article underscores the urgency of addressing these obstacles to ensure a truly inclusive distance education. Proposed strategies include enhancing digital literacy training, fostering cultural sensitivity, offering financial support, and establishing robust support networks. By illuminating the barriers faced by disadvantaged groups in distance learning and offering multifaceted solutions, this article contributes to the ongoing dialogue on educational equity and the transformation of distance education into a conduit for inclusivity.

Knowledge about Machine Learning (ML) is becoming essential, yet it remains a restricted privilege that may not be available to students from a low socio-economic status background. Thus, in order to provide equal opportunities, we taught ML concepts and applications to 158 middle and high school students from a low socio-economic background in Brazil. Results show that these students can understand how ML works and execute the main steps of a human-centered process for developing an image classification model. No substantial differences regarding class periods, educational stage, and sex assigned at birth were observed. The course was perceived as fun and motivating, especially to girls. Despite the limitations in this context, the results show that they can be overcome. Mitigating solutions involve partnerships between social institutions and university, an adapted pedagogical approach as well as increased on-by-one assistance. These findings can be used to guide course designs for teaching ML in the context of underprivileged students from a low socio-economic status background and thus contribute to the inclusion of these students.

The high level of inequality in South Africa has widened the gap between rural and urban schools, and the performance of rural schools has been continuously declining compared to urban schools. Poor performance in rural schools is perpetuated by parents being absent from their children's education because the socio-economic conditions and their educational background do not allow them to commit their time and energy towards education. Learners are left on their own to decide their future. The disparity between rural and urban schooling was further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. As schools were closed during lockdown, teaching and learning was suspended in rural schools, however, in urban schools teaching and learning continued through online platforms. The lockdowns gave parents an opportunity to teach, advocate, and create conducive spaces to help their children focus on learning. During lockdowns, parents were expected to act as teachers in their homes to educate their children, and therefore, school closure presented opportunities for parents to actively participate in their children's education. However, their socio-economic conditions and poor educational backgrounds continue to threaten effective parental engagement, posing a threat to the academic success of rural learners. Despite attempts by the government to introduce school governing bodies in schools as a structure to integrate schools and parents, the problem of little parental engagement remains unresolved. The purpose with this study was to empower parents in rural areas to effectively participate in their children's education.

In the past two decades, the Government of Pakistan has significantly invested in higher education (HE) to bring structural reforms in funding, governance, and quality assurance mechanisms. Their overarching mission has been to fuel national socioeconomic development by ensuring equal access to HE. Given this, the present study aimed to address the following research question: To what extent have current HE reforms in Pakistan enabled equitable access to HE? To address this question, this study drew from a social justice-centered framework to track trends in HE access that is, broadly and based on socio-economic status, gender, urbanicity/rurality, and region/province. Using secondary data from diverse sources including the HEC, Academy of Education Planning and Management, and the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund, we conducted descriptive longitudinal analyses. Findings underscore that the system has failed to provide equal access to HE in several ways and discuss some possibilities for policymakers in equalizing the opportunities.

We utilize a difference-in-difference design to examine the effect of adopting a statewide promise program on the enrollment of community college students across socio-economic status. Limited by a small sample size for treated units, we find inferential evidence that the adoption of a state-wide, last-dollar promise program for community colleges with no merit-based or need-based criteria raised the enrollment of in-state first-time-in-college, full-time students in their first year of college from families that earned between $0 and $75,000 in adjusted gross income. Effect sizes were largest for students from the lowest SES group ($0 to $30,000) approximately 168 additional students enrolled per 2-year institution per year following Tennessee Promise program adoption. Findings controlled for year-to-year variations in unemployment and state price parities. We discuss benefits and concerns regarding scholarships such as the Tennessee Promise that increase enrollment for lower-income students but do not affect the amount of financial aid included in their award packages in practice.

People with high self-esteem are better able to take delight in life's little pleasures, handle difficult situations, overcome challenges, establish lasting relationships, and strengthen their weaknesses. This study examined socioeconomic status, body image, and peer influence on self-esteem among in-school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria. The descriptive survey design of the correlational type was used during the investigation. This study employed a multi-stage sampling technique. Three hundred and forty-five in-school adolescents made the study sample. Data was collected using reliable instruments: (Peer Influence Scale [alpha] = 0.78; Body image scale [alpha] = 0.83; Parental Socioeconomic Status Scale [alpha] = 0.89; Self-Esteem Inventory [alpha] = 0.71). From the results, socioeconomic status (r = 0.533; p < 0.05), body image (r = 0.577; p < 0.05), and peer influence (r = 0.331; p < 0.05) had a significant relationship with (self-esteem). Body Image made the most significant contribution ([beta] = 0.371; t = 7.555; p < 0.05) followed by Peer influence ([beta] = 0.316; t = 8.112; p < 0.05) and Socioeconomic status ([beta] = 0.312; t = 6.374; p < 0.05). The study underscores the need for counseling and orientation programs for adolescents in all ramifications; this will help ease the psychological strain that could hamper their self-esteem.

In envisioning the future of literacy, students' voices are paramount. Students' engagement in classroom talk increases their learning and communication skills, but without intentional implementation, classroom talk can perpetuate hegemony in contemporary classrooms. To better explore this phenomenon, we developed a study in a southeast Texas high school to examine the experiences of lower socioeconomic status female students. The study used a Participatory Action Research (PAR) method, thus encouraging student voice. The findings indicated that female students respond well to Socratic seminar, which can encourage students to take ownership of their learning and be more engaged in classroom conversations. The key themes included (1) establishing space, (2) teacher impact and influence, and (3) teacher progression. The article ends with recommendations and suggestions for teachers to cultivate gender-inclusive and equitable classroom environments, such as honoring student perspectives, encouraging critical feedback, engaging in self-reflection, and transitioning to more student-led activities.

The following article recommends Texas high school English teachers to select "All the Pretty Horses" (McCarthy, 1992), the critically acclaimed, best-selling novel by Cormac McCarthy, as a reading option for students. Set in rural Texas and Mexico, "All the Pretty Horses" provides an engaging reading experience that would likely connect to the lives of many Texas high school students. In addition to the rural setting and bilingual dialogues, the novel offers relatable teenage characters with diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds similar to the diverse student populations in Texas schools. The novel also addresses developmentally appropriate themes including independence, identity, and career. Likewise, students with various reading levels will be able to comprehend the text. The present article discusses how "All the Pretty Horses" is an example of a relevant, accessible, and high-interest text for adolescents. In addition, the article provides high school teachers with suggestions for meaningful literacy activities that correspond to Boardman and colleagues' (2008) five central components of adolescent literacy.

In this article, I document and analyze all municipal, state, and county-level efforts for Black reparations in the United States. Most efforts resemble H.R. 40's exploratory commission model, possibly due to policy path dependency. Few geographies have allocated funding for committee recommendations, but some have allocated funds for committee activities. Only Evanston, Illinois, has allocated and distributed funds to qualifying residents. On average, cities with reparations efforts demonstrated mixed performance on metrics related to Black wealth, with insufficient evidence to suggest local Black-White disparities are more severe than the nation as a whole. Several proposals emphasize the Black-White racial wealth gap as emblematic of slavery- derived disparity, but no municipal or state proposal can rival the scale or potential of a federal program.

This literature review examines the main factors in a child's life that directly impact the development of emergent literacy skills. The literature in this review was collected from several peer-reviewed articles and government-certified websites. As discussed in the literature, the development of emergent literacy skills is dependent upon a child's phonological awareness. The review identified the home literacy environment (HLE) as an area that is influential in developing emergent literacy skills, as a result of providing a continuation from school to home. Other key factors include the dynamic of the classroom and programming or interventions provided. Overall, this literature review demonstrates the importance of emergent literacy. The author concludes that the home literacy environment, classroom dynamic, and interventions/programming provided are the main factors in a child's life that affect early literacy development.

Mounting research has revealed how the labor of caregiving and parenting in the United States fell disproportionately to mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic, with negative impacts on mothers' personal and professional well-being. Here, we advance this growing body of work by examining how mothers' pandemic-related parenting and caregiving experiences differed across socioeconomic status. We ask the degree to which mothers' class-based parenting approaches persisted or dissipated in the wake of the pandemic. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted with 130 mothers caring for children under eighteen in 2020-2021, we find that these parenting patterns largely continued into the pandemic, with mothers' socioeconomic and employment status shaping how they experienced and navigated this disruption and particularly how they managed competing paid and unpaid labor demands.

Segregation is often seen in terms of race. However, it can also be based on socioeconomic status. Public colleges and universities in the U.S. had highly divergent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite operating under similar health and legal considerations, campuses at most elite institutions were treated as essential functions while the neighboring campuses of less elite institutions were often treated as non-essential functions. This was problematic during the pandemic, but the discrimination appears to be continuing after the emergency has passed. The policy of continued reduction of the role of the college campus is an attractive option for less exclusive institutions. While a campus is most valuable for the more marginalized students, it is their campuses that closed and remain limited. The community college campus is the foundation of higher education for many students. The purpose of this article was to explore the value of the campus experience.

The increase in borderless digital-based business competition shows how language education is impacted by neoliberalism in this global era. We explore how linguistic technopreneurship (LT) roles is increasingly constructed as a form of linguistic entrepreneurship to exploit language-related resources to enhance one's socioeconomic value strategically. This research aims to critically examine the influence of LT toward business success digitalization for Small Medium Enterprises in West Java and it's implication for Language Education. The research also focusing on the creation of novelty, namely linguistic technopreneurship (LT), which is a refinement of entrepreneurial linguistics (EL). LT is expected to be able to explain how linguistic entrepreneurship can be indexed from two different aspects, namely how to package language education and digital business success. We then discuss under what conditions the notion of linguistic technopreneurship can be applied to digital platform-based business settings and what kind of contradictions this gives rise to. The method used is quantitative, and it involves carrying out SEM analysis. A non-probability sampling technique was used to obtain a minimum of 250 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Industry owners who run their businesses through digital platforms in West Java province, which is the province with the most significant number of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Industries in Indonesia. The research results show that LT significantly influences the success of business success and impact the language education practice. It can be concluded that language education is an added value for a person and influences socioeconomic success.

We are increasingly realizing that technology and its use in learning contexts is not benign. With the advent of more powerful technology tools, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) ones, combined with the historically significant changes that have occurred in education over the last four years, there are more reasons than ever to examine their influence on human beings in the process of "being educated". The aim of our 3-year longitudinal study was to understand how programs being offered at a fully online technical higher education (HE) institution in Chile influenced the identity development of students from socio-economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. A Participant Action Research (PAR) approach was adopted to the study that involved macro, meso and micro-driven changes being made to programs. These changes involved aligning the instructional design, pedagogical approaches, and technology tools of programs with contemporary e-learning theory and 21st century learning goals. Previously, we provided three in-depth reports of the evolving changes on learners' identities - in the beginning, mid and end phases of their programs. We also reported on teachers' perspectives of learners' evolving identities and the transformation of their own roles and practices during the change period. In this paper, we add to those findings with the results of a recent inquiry into the perspectives of macrolevel administrators who were instrumental in the collaborative effort to bring about change to the institution. In this latest study, we employed in-depth focus group and individual interviews to unpack what the change involved on the part of these decision makers in terms of their own epistemological and ontological perspectives, their roles in the institution and their future goals for the organization. The framework we have developed for schematizing the results of these previous inquiries and those of the overall longitudinal study could prove useful in other organizations that are awakening to the need to successfully put e-learning theory to practice in their institutions. The insight to be gained in this framework could add to their efforts to seek pragmatic ways to bring about systemic changes in their online programs and to graduate students with the kinds of identities and skills that will best equip them for the complex world in which they will work and live.

This position paper identifies the complexity of the special education teacher (SET) shortage and the social injustices of the already marginalized population of students with disabilities (SWD). Nationally, policy reforms and teacher certification initiatives may have unknowingly perpetuated the shortage of SET in an attempt to increase the supply and strengthen the impact of teacher quality on student outcomes. There are documented factors contributing to the shortage as well as initiatives designed to increase the supply of SET. The disparities in the access to highly qualified SET for SWD have been evident for decades. The negative impact on academic and behavioral outcomes of SWDs are even greater for those SWDs who experience the intersectionality of race, low-socioeconomic status, certain geographical location, and low-incident disabilities. An immediate call to action is required for sustainable resolutions to increase the supply of highly qualified SET to ensure SWDs access to a "free, appropriate, public education" and eliminate the modern day "Have Nots" of the already marginalized in society.

In this policy brief, we use research findings to illuminate experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic of U.S. rural college students from poor and working-class backgrounds. We offer institutional, state, and federal policy lessons gleaned from such experiences. We show how rural, poor and working-class students' higher education success was impacted by COVID-19 and how the pandemic highlighted and exacerbated existing systemic geographic and social class barriers faced by such students pursuing college. In turn, we hope postsecondary policymakers at the institutional, state, and federal levels can learn from these experiences to better support rural, poor, and working class students in the future, even during times of continued crisis.

The lifelong learning strategy is one of the most significant strategies suggested for bringing up modern persons in the appropriate circumstances. This study attempts to identify, in terms of several characteristics, the lifelong learning tendencies of the Turkish language, literature, and Turkish teacher candidates. 297 students studying Turkish Language and Literature as well as Turkish Teacher Certification at a university in the east of Turkey make up the study's sample in the survey model. The Lifelong Learning Tendency Scale (Gür Erdoan & Arsan, 2016) was used to gather the research's data. The information gathered throughout the study was analyzed using four distinct methods, including frequency, percentage, t-test for independent groups, and Kruskal Wallis H test. The statistical software package SPSS for Windows 22.00 was used to analyze the data. The study's findings revealed that, when it comes to gender-related factors, female teacher candidates had stronger lifelong learning tendencies than male teacher candidates. It was discovered that teacher candidates who read books frequently--every day, every other day, and once a week--had better propensities for lifetime learning than those who read books just once a month. It was found that teacher candidates with stronger dispositions toward lifelong learning studied scientific/academic, personal development, adventure, novel/story, and literary genres. Additionally, it was discovered through the research that there was no significant difference in the lifelong learning tendencies of teacher candidates about factors like age, the department or major of science they studied in college, the grade level they studied in, family income level, the education levels of their mothers and fathers, and preferred reading model. In general, it was found that teacher applicants scored extremely well on the lifelong learning tendencies scale when it came to their responses regarding their degrees of willingness to learn and grow over time.

Purpose: The present study investigates the influence of demographic factors on the demand for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Pakistan. The government of Pakistan has implemented various skill enhancement programs to harness the demographic dividend. However, only a small portion of the workforce receives any form of TVET, contributing to a shortage of skilled workers in the country. Many industries, particularly in manufacturing and mining, face deficits in the skilled labour. Consequently, this study aims to examine the role of demographic factors in shaping the demand for TVET within the Pakistani context. Methods: For the TVET demand's estimation, this study employed the Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement (PSLM) dataset of 2018-19 by using binary logistic regression analysis (BLRA). The demographic variables include the household's income, household head's education, household size, male proportion of the target age group, household head's age, and region of the household. Findings: The findings indicate that households in the higher income category do not demand TVET. Moreover, if the head of the household is highly educated, then the household is less likely to participate in TEVT. So, the higher the socio-economic status, the lower the probability of demand for TVET from the better-off students. Further, this study also indicates that boys are more likely to participate in TVET-related degrees, while females are less likely to participate in TVET due to the non-availability of institutes and hostel facilities, poor transportation, the limited number of trades available for females, and security issues. Conclusion: The findings provide insightful evidence to support the idea that the higher the socio-economic status of households, the lower the probability of demand for a TVET degree or diploma. Similarly, children of parents with university education are less likely to pursue TVET-related degrees. The reason is likely attributed to the perception that TVET-associated degrees and diplomas are considered inferior due to their lower standing and prestige as compared to general or professional degrees. This study suggests that the attractiveness of TVET can be enhanced by improving the quality of TVET, improving labour market outcomes, and creating a pathway to general education. Overall, this study not only contributes to empirical analyses of socio-economic determinants in TVET demand but also suggests that its findings can be applied not only to South Asian countries but also to other comparable nations with similar cultural ties and affinities.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent school closures have had profound impacts on learners and their families globally, affecting their psychosocial wellbeing. However, the extent and nature of these effects, particularly in diverse socioeconomic contexts, remain largely under-explored. Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effects of school closures on the psychosocial wellbeing of children and parents in South Africa's Gauteng province. Setting: The research included families from various socioeconomic backgrounds in Gauteng province, South Africa. Methods: Using an ethnographic research approach, diary-style entries via the WhatsApp mobile app were collected from 43 families, and semi-structured telephonic interviews were conducted with 21 families. Results: The study found that children experienced adverse emotions, including loneliness, boredom, anxiety and isolation during school closures. Parents reported elevated stress levels and increased caregiving burden. The severity of impact was influenced by access to resources for online or home-schooling. Conclusion: The findings highlight the multi-dimensional implications of school closures on families and underscore the importance of providing adequate support during such disruptions, taking into account the varying effects across socioeconomic backgrounds. Contribution: This study fills a crucial gap in understanding the psychosocial impacts of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic on children and parents within diverse socioeconomic contexts. The findings call for equitable access to educational resources, evidence-based remediation efforts, and integrated mental health support services.

Students in over 150 countries experienced school closures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In the years following, a growing body of literature seeks to estimate the impacts of these education disruptions on a diverse set of outcomes, including student learning. This article adds to this research by examining causal evidence through a difference-in-differences framework (DID). Results suggest that school closures led to learning losses in math for high school seniors in public schools in the Federal District (DF) in Brazil. And while all racial groups experienced learning loss, White and Asian students experienced the most significant losses in 2020. We find no evidence of learning recovery from 2020 to 2021 for any racial groups, suggesting that learning losses persisted into school reopening. We do find, however, possible signs of recovery for female senior students compared to male students. Nevertheless, male and female performance differences are still prominent when analyzing data from 2016 to 2021. The utilization of critical policy analysis and the effectively maintained inequality frameworks can offer insights into significant learning disparities experienced by students.

Prior research underscores the pivotal role high school freshman grade-point averages (FGPA) play in college enrollment, with a focus predominantly on urban settings. This study broadens this perspective, employing a diverse Arkansas sample (n = 33,207), spanning rural, suburban, and urban high school students and filling a notable literature gap. Utilizing a logit analysis, we found that high school students with an A FGPA were 23% more likely to enroll in college than B FGPA peers. Those failing a course in their high school freshman year were 13% less likely to enroll in college. Among similar academic ability students, economically disadvantaged students were 15% less likely to enroll in college. Locale classifications showed no significant enrollment variations. We conclude that FGPA and socioeconomic status (SES) are stronger enrollment predictors than locale classifications, finishing with intervention recommendations for lower-SES students in exploring college options.

Grade repetition is an issue with important educational implications. This study analyzes the effect of cognitive variables, socio-economic status, as well as the interaction of socioeconomic status with ethnic origin, on the probability of not repeating. Data were collected to calculate socioeconomic status using the Hollingshead Socioeconomic Index, and the following tests were administered to collect information on cognitive variables: the Primary Mental Aptitude Test (PMA), the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test, and the Wechsler Intelligence for Children Information Scale (WISC IV). The sample consisted of 664 students of Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO), Baccalaureate and intermediate and higher vocational training. The results confirm the predictive power of socioeconomic status. With regard to cognitive variables, significant results were only obtained when the WISC-IV Information Scale was taken as a predictor, this measure being related to crystallized intelligence. The influence of the origin of the students did not yield significant results. There is a clear need for a debate and a rethinking of the issue leading to the identification of new strategies to reduce grade repetition and its negative effects.